MUSICIAN

My life as a musician started out with piano lessons. My teacher gave me a new songs to learn at home and before leaving showed me what they should sound like. At the start of one of my lessons, I played my assignment and the teacher asked me to play what was written on the music. I replied "I did - I played it just like did", to which she replied, "yes but when I played the song, I played in a different key than what was written ... YOU need to learn to read music". That was pretty much the end of my piano career.

In middle school I wanted to play the drums. I went to orchestra and got to play drums for exactly 2 weeks. The orchestra director moved me to French horn because he needed a French horn. I played that for a couple of concerts, then he moved me to tuba. I continued to play the tuba as my primary instrument throughout high school and my first year of college (picking up trumpet, trombone, baritone, and some drums along the way). I really loved playing music in a group of people. And, as is too often the case, life happens - I got busy and stopped playing music.

Twelve years later, a friend of mine decided he wanted to play guitar, so I figured I'd learn it too. Several months later, I'd already plateau'd so I went to a fabulous guitar player in our church named Brad Bailey to take some lessons (go to his website, have a listen, and prepare to be amazed because he's playing the bass and guitar at the same time). He really helped me break through my blockage and I was really enjoying our lessons. Until he suddenly moved to another city to be a worship leader at another church.

Since Brad was the bass player in our church's worship band at Southside Fellowship, there was now a vacancy, so I pitched the idea to play bass in the church's band. A couple weeks later I found myself back playing music in a group. Oh the joy of playing music with other people. I was clearly the weakest link in the group - they were all fantastic musicians, and I was just loving the variety of styles that we would play from week to week. During the years that I played with these amazing people, I built and furnished a recording studio so that I could record and produce music. Mixing music and technology was very rewarding and a lot of fun. And then I moved to France.

In France, I met an American singer who played with a French band The Ugly Ducklings. The guys were kind enough to write up a bio for me, that I think fits me to a "T" :

STEVEN FINK - bass guitar - Loving the low frequencies and life in the "back row", Steven finds his home helping Matthieu (our drummer) build the foundation on which the other Ducks can shine. He is a multiple personality disorder musician with a history spanning classical, rock, funk, country and gospel.

I played with the Ugly Ducklings until I moved to Lyon a couple years back. Now, it's just me alone in my apartment with my guitar and piano ... waiting for the next musical chapter !